Temporary workers and the evolution of recruitment

Jo Faragher

There was something very telling in the most recent round of figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.

They highlighted a trend that so-called futurologists have been telling us would happen for years – that a more volatile economy would require a more agile and flexible workforce, that would increasingly be made up of freelancers and temps rather than ‘jobs for lifers’.

According to the REC’s latest Jobs Outlook, more than a third of employers report that temporary workers earn more than they would on a permanent contract at their company, while over half earn the same. At the same time, many businesses say they are prepared to pay more for temporary workers so they can keep on top of orders and grow to their full potential.

It’s already well proven that temporary employees can provide the help needed for special projects or peak workloads without increasing fixed payroll costs or overtime bills. Furthermore, most recruitment agencies offer a temporary-to-hire option so that businesses may try out new employees – which can help to overcome the caution still held by many employers around increasing permanent headcount.

But while the crystal-ball gazers’ predictions about the shape of the workforce may be coming true, how will this more fluid workforce look in the future? Predictions range from simply more of the same (just to a greater extent), to visions of super-lean organisations where there is a central administrative core but everything else, even management, is commissioned to an army of self-employed workers.

In the short-term, this is good news for recruiters if they can respond to the high peaks in demand for temporary staff, and work in partnership with clients to anticipate their peaks and troughs in need. But workforce planning in the longer term could be more of a challenge – some believe that people will begin to see themselves more as skilled individuals who can flit from project to project and so will have less loyalty to a single employer, for example.

That said, those people managing the workload at the centre of the organisation will always need support in sourcing skills, particularly as the market changes so rapidly and roles we haven’t even heard of yet emerge. It will be interesting to see where this trend for temporary and flexible work will take us.